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Greg Beacham
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Recent Articles
- News, Film & TV May 25, 2006
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Tragically Hip
The Devil and Daniel Johnston tells the sad story of a troubled hipster icon.
- If you’re mentally ill, you must beware the hipster, for he wants to make you his mascot. If you’ve got a half-crippling neurosis or an insurmountable brain hurdle, yet you’re also cogent enough to create art without irony, the hipster...
- News, Film & TV April 6, 2006
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The Wages of Spin
Thank You for Smoking turns the politics of moral relativism into smart satire.
- Nobody really smokes in Thank You for Smoking, director Jason Reitman’s ambitious satire of spin-doctoring and media manipulation centered on the cigarette industry and its apologists. Robert Duvall, playing an imperious, julep-swilling Old South...
- News, Film & TV February 23, 2006
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Heir of the Dogme
Why can’t we all make culturally ignorant art movies like Dear Wendy?
- I’m thinking about making a movie about Denmark. Sure, I’m not Danish, I’ve never been to Denmark and I’ve never actually met any Danes except for a guy who once gave me directions to Arsenal’s soccer stadium in London and...
- News, Film & TV February 23, 2006
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Plot Holes
Transamerica’s gender-bending performance could use a little story.
- So many recent movies with Sundance heritage'either actual or just ideological'are basically a performance in search of a story. First-time writer-directors seem to have a particular bent for building overwrought dramas, heist capers or the old reliable...
- News, Film & TV February 2, 2006
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Stiff Upper Nips
Mrs. Henderson Presents merely adds bare breasts to tired tales of wartime Brits.
- There are certain areas, figures and epochs in human history that are just about tapped, cinematically speaking. I’m not talking about romantic comedies or heist pictures, which hopefully will be made in perpetuity, but several specific subgenres...
- News, Film & TV January 19, 2006
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Still Dead
Match Point can’t deliver the latest attempt at a Woody Allen “resurrectionâ€.
- Woody Allen fans are like evangelicals eagerly awaiting the Second Coming'only their god is still technically here. A full half-dozen times since 1998, we’ve been told Allen’s newest film is his return to relevance after an epic decline. Woody...
- News, Film & TV January 12, 2006
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Hoosier Daddy
A reliable sports-movie template is the father of Glory Road.
- People have been trying to make the next Hoosiers for two decades now, but not everybody can figure out why that 1986 paean to small-town virtues, inflexible coaching and the purest jump shot in basketball history is still more fun than almost any sports...
- News, Film & TV January 5, 2006
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Anyone for Tens?
Three critics praise their favorite films of 2005.
- Scott Renshaw’s Top 10 of 2005nn1. Brokeback Mountainnn2. A History of Violencenn3. Kung Fu Hustlenn4. King Kongnn5. Mr. & Mrs. Smithnn6. Tony Takitaninn7. The 40-Year-Old Virginnn8. Murderballnn9. The Matadornn10. MirrormasknnEvery year I think...
- News, Film & TV December 15, 2005
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Art Knock Life
Show biz again shows it’s not inherently compelling in The Dying Gaul.
- Whether it’s movies about moviemaking, plays about playwrights or rap singles about how tough it is to be a rap star, entertainment about entertainment has always made my head ache. I just can’t stand the blithe assumption that an artist’s...
- News, Film & TV November 24, 2005
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Broken Home Journal
A filmmaker’s adolescent travails prove hard to watch in The Squid and the Whale.
- We must at least give Noah Baumbach credit for trying to make a film like a big boy. Wes Anderson, his sometime collaborator, seems content to while away a promising career in a neverland of adolescent curios and middle-school creative-writing-class stories...
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